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FA Cup third round: Cheating Suarez shames game with hand ball goal against brave Mansfield City

szólj hozzá: Mansfield vs Liverpool 0:2 Suarez
Full marks to Mansfield City, 96 places below Liverpool, for their classy gesture reserving seats for the 96 fallen in the Hillsborough tragedy. You could see this was such a huge game for the non-league side.
Not so classy: Luis Suarez’s blatant hand ball that was the difference between a win and a replay. Suarez is an admirable footballer and he’s the one reason that Liverpool are surging in the table. But he’s got issues. Andre Marriner and the linesman were equally culpable for failing to spot Suarez’s offence. You might as well put Mr Magoo in charge of officiating.
Jon Champion called it “the work of a cheat” and for that truth telling, ESPN rushed to apologize and stated they were in discussions with the commentator. Brendan Rodgers got into it by saying it wasn’t Suarez’s responsibility to own up.
Man, this really puts a stink on the decades long biggest cover up in British sporting history. A saga that anguished an entire city, took innumerable investigations, and an apology by the PM to bring some sort of closure. Here was a non-league side honouring that memory and playing their guts out. One classy gesture deserved an equally classy response and that was a golden opportunity missed. Football lost.
For the record, we shouldn’t let Marriner and the linesmen off the hook. There were three other penalty shouts against Liverpool which deserved attention but were not given.